| Distr. LIMITED
ECA/PADIS/SCH/1.3.6/95
16 November 1995
Original: ENGLISH
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Subcommittee meetings of the Standing Committee
on Harmonization and Standardization of
Information and Documentation Systems in Africa |
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Cairo, Egypt
13-16 November 1995
REPORT
by
Makane Faye, Regional Adviser
Information Systems Development
Executive Summary
1. The ever increasing role of information and documentation services in the field
of development creates a continuous need for the exchange of information between
such systems at national, regional and international levels. However, compatibility
problems are a major setback for information systems and networks, while exchange
of information within a network requires a minimum set of common standards and
methodologies. To facilitate the interchange of information and help in reducing or
even eliminating technical barriers and compatibility problems, standards need to be
developed and adopted. The PADIS Standing Committee on the Harmonization and
Standardization of Information Systems in Africa was set up in 1989 to deal with
these matters on a continuous basis. PADIS in cooperation with member States and
African subregional and regional institutions have developed and adopted a series of
standards including guidelines, manuals and computerized programs for textual data
base development and on-line authority file preparation. In this regard,
standardization activities are carried out in subcommittees chaired by experts from
member States which report to the Standing Committee on the Harmonization and
Standardization of Information Systems in Africa chaired by ECA. Seven such
subcommittees have been created over the years to tackle standardization problems in
Africa. Under the sponsorship of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the
Subcommittee meetings were organized from 13-16 November 1995 in Cairo, Egypt,
with a view to reviewing a) the manual for document analysis together with the
PADOR computer program, b) the authority file program for data entry and c) the
common format for an African CD-ROM. Thirteen experts from member States and
PADIS reviewed the above programs and made relevant recommendations for use of
the programs and for future work of the Subcommittees in improving the tools in their
respective area of competence. The meetings were organized by Makane Faye,
Regional Adviser in Information Systems Development and Lambert Hogenhout,
Associate Computer Expert.
Organization of the Subcommittee meetings
2. The subcommittee meetings were organized at the Headquarters of the
Egyptian Academy of Science and Techonlogy and were facilitated by the Egyptian
National Scientific and Technical Information Network (ENSTINET). The following
three Subcommittees held their meetings from 13-16 November 1995:
Subcommittee 1: Manual for document analysis.
Subcommittee 3: Evaluation of textual data base formats and structures
Subcommittee 6: Authority files
3. The meetings were attended by 17 experts from member States, African
regional and subregional organizations as well as the Organisation of Africa Unity
(OAU). A full list of participants appears in Annex I. The Carnegie Corportation of
New York sponsored 8 out of 17 participants while others were sponsored by their
respective organizations. The International Development Research Centre (IDRC)
provided funds for hiring of a Conference room and computers and other facilities.
Election of officers
4. The officers for the various subcommittees were elected at the beginning of the
Subcommittee meetings as follows:
| Subcommittee 1: |
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Chairman:
Rapporteur:
| Mohammed Fadhel Diagne (Senegal)
Joyce Phiri (Eastern and Southern African Development
Information System)
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| Subcommittee 3:
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Chairman:
Rapporteur:
| Mr. Michael Nageri (African Regional Center for Technology)
Mr. Duke Lawrence Ogbokor (Lake Tchad Basin Commission)
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| Subcommittee 6:
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Chairman:
Rapporteur:
| Mrs. Sharon Okinda (African Economic Research Consortium)
Mr. Andre Roos (South Africa)
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Report on the work undertaken by the 3 subcommittees
SUBCOMMITTEE 1 ON MANUAL FOR DOCUMENT ANALYSIS: REVIEW
OF THE PADIS/CDS-ISIS MANUAL AND THE PADOR DATA BASE
PROGRAM
5. The committee reviewed the functionality of all fields of the Manual in a
practical situation in libraries/information and documentation Centres in Africa, and
presented its report on 16 November 1995. The Sub-committee welcomed the
introduction of the PADDEV/PADOR data base program and worksheet and
commended PADIS for the good work. After a thorough examination, the Sub-
committee raised the following queries, which were discussed before adopting the
report with amendements.
A. SPECIFIC QUERIES AND RECOMMENDATIONS
| Field 140:
| Relationship To Other Records
- needs further clarification and more explanations.
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| Field 540:
| Language of text
- Field should be repeatable.
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| Field 630:
| Date of Publication
The Sub-committee recommended the adoption of the standard
numeric form of date of publication (YYYY - MM - DD).
Thus field 620, free form of date of publication, should be used
for local publication date for example islamic or Ethiopian
datation.
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Collection
The Sub-committee recommended the creation of a field for collections
between field 640 and 670, to cater for documents gathered in a single
collection by one publisher.
| Field 740:
| Development Project (Journal article)
The Sub-committee recommended removal of this field from the
Journal Article worksheet.
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Field 850:
| PADIS Sectoral Code (s)
Sub-committee to provide additional sections.
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| Field 870:
| Participation In Other Systems
There is need for more space for field length and should be
changed to read ``participation in other information systems'' in
place of ``participating in other system''.
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| Field 970:
| (Journal Article)
Correct typographical error "data" to read "date".
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Help Message (F1)
The help facilities or messages in the worksheet should be reviewed, e.g.
- The % (percentage) sign should be indicated to show repeatable fields.
- F160 should read "produced" instead of 'prepared'.
- F210 (Journal article) help message should be changed to reflect the
field in Journal article worksheet.
- F550 (Journal article) to read "another" and not " an other language"
- F640 (Journal article) help message should be harmonized.
- F950 (Journal article) a caret ^ should be inserted before subfield 'b'.
B. GENERAL RECOMMENDATIONS
- Samples of completed worksheet should be included by Sub-committee
1 in the manual in order to help information professionals,
documentalists and librarians.
- As technology advances rapidly, the Sub-committee requests PADIS to
rapidly provide training on its new methodologies for information
processing.
- PADIS should continue to invite OAU and African Regional
Communities to attend its meetings so as to integrate all forms of data
bases that exist
for input into the PADIS system.
- The Sub-committee commended the good work done by PADIS in
respect of harmonizing and Standardizing of data exchange formats.
However, it was noted that in order to have effective regional
applications, it was recommended that these products be disseminated
for testing and use at national and regional centres and feedback be
incorporated.
SUBCOMMITTEE 3 ON EVALUATION OF TEXTUAL DATA BASE
FORMATS AND STRUCTURES: REVIEW OF AN EXCHANGE FORMAT
FOR THE AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT CD-ROM
6. The Subcommittee reviewed the report dealing with the format for the African
CD-ROM which was developed in November 1994 during the meeting of the
Subcommittee in Addis Ababa. In all, 19 fields were described and reviewed.
Modifications were made to some while others remained unchanged. Also, some
additional fields were introduced. Discussions were carried out in an attempt to
arrive at a compromise of making final choice of fields, modifications and sub-fields.
DISCUSSIONS
7. During the discussions, the members of the Sub-committee recognized the
problem of some organizations not being able to acquire a simple CD-ROM drive and
its necessary tools. It seemed quite ridiculous, but that was the reality. The members
noted that most African information managers have not yet come across a CD-ROM
and that it was necessary for the Carnegie Corporation to assist PADIS in acquiring
CD ROM readers and data bases on CD for member States. Furthermore, members
of the Subcommittee pointed out that it would be important to make available all
African research and development information on CD-ROMs. They also felt that the
CD-ROM aspect of the Carnegie project was a good and viable endeavour in the
sense that, it has the advantage of mass data storage and retrieval speed vis-a-vis that
of a hard disk. The CD ROM develpment project was unanimously recognized as a
cost effective solution for Africa, and that any institution in Africa should contribute
data in it.
8. Concerning review of the data format for the CD ROM, questions were raised
by various members on the harmonization of the format. After a careful deliberation
on the entire fields proposed, observations were made which resulted in the
recommendations below.
RECOMMENDATIONS
9. The members made the following recommendations:
- PADIS should, in the framework of the Carnegie Grant or other similar
projects, assist in acquiring a complete kit of CD-ROM for information
centres in member States that might not have the means to buy CD
ROM readers;
- The field "Country of Production" should read "Country of Origin" and
should be mandatory;
- The "Serial title" should come after "Translated title" field. The
information required for this field should be as follows:
i) Volume part (issue) and
ii) Collation;
It should also be a separate field;
- The translated languages should be a repetetive field;
- Publication date should be of standard format;
- The field "Academic degree of diploma" should read "Academic degree
or diploma";
- Publication date can be in two forms namely:
i) International standard and
ii) Local standard should be in free format
- There should be an independent field for the editions. It is
recommended that the new field "Edition" should come immediately
after publication date.
- "Abstract" should be mandatory for the future versions of the
CD-ROM. It is recommended that PADIS should find a means of
introducing short courses in training of information managers on
writing of abstracts and indexing.
- PADIS should make the committee on CD-ROM to undertake a survey
on commonly used thesauri within the Africa region and come up with
guidelines on the most appropriate ones for each area of discipline such
as Science and Technology three (3) Thesaurus for the Science sector,
and the Macrothesaurus for the planning and economic development
sectors.
SUBCOMMITTEE SIX ON AUTHORITY FILES: REVIEW OF THE ODIN
AUTHORITY PROGRAM FOR DATA ENTRY
Why develop a computerized authority file?
10. The Authority file program was developed to promote consistency in the
electronic storage, management and dissemination of information input into national,
subregional, regional as well as PADIS databases by using the CDS/ISIS and PADOR
system, supplemented by the specially developed ODIN program used for authority
control.
The ODIN Authority file computerized program
11. The aim of the Authority file program is to standardize any data element in
any data base either textual or numerical. Since the form of these data elements may
vary from document to document, it is imperative that the program be able to
automatically provide a way to improve certain categories of data in a consistent,
standardized way.
Controls
12. The Authority file program provides control lists, checks for uniqueness, and
should indicate which fields and subfields are mandatory. It also verifies that data
that are input against certain default values and standard lists of names, subjects,
series, etc. Should an incorrect term be input, the program will be able to link the
term automatically to the controlled term and insert that term in the required field.
Lists of controlled terms or "picklists" can be available on-line. This was the case
with the Authority file of African institutions developed in a separate data base to be
linked when necessary to the data base being processed by a user. The names are
inserted automatically in order to avoid human error and to speed up input of data.
The whole aim of the creation of this authority file being to ensure that access points
are input in a consistent manner in order to enhance information retrieval.
COMMENTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
13. In view of the importance and relevance of this program to the work of all
member States, members of Subcommittees 1, 3 and 6 participated in the review of
the Authority program. Furthermore, the Subcommittee recommended that PADIS
give thorough training to information managers in the use of the computerized
Authority file program and the PADOR/PADDEV software. Evaluation of the
program will be done by members of the Subcommittee upon their return in their
respective countries, and information will be exchanged by e-mail between the
Subcommittee chairman and PADIS secretariat.
14. The Subcommittee felt that there was too little time for training and proper
evaluation of the new programs but was able to provide the following comments and
recommendations:
- The manual for the ODIN Authority program should be re-written to
make it more user-friendly and easier to use for non-technical staff.
- The steps for the installation of ODIN and for the installation of the
interface for a specific data base should be simplified.
- The format description of the .spf file is difficult to understand by
non-systems personnel. The Subcommittee will review the existing spf
files and create a standard.spf file for easy use and installation. The
current method of defining field by field is difficult to handle and
time-consuming.
- The Authority List data base (AUTO) for organizations should include
separate fields for the name of the organization and another one for
acronyms of the full name.
- The F1 key has to be used to select the worksheet. This should be
changed so that calling up the work sheet (entry screen) should be a
default.
- The LOAD INVERTED FILE command in the CDS/ISIS Import
Option should be scrapped, if possible, when using PADOR to avoid
destruction of the master records for index generation.
- THe Authority file program should allow for the continuous updating
and editing of control lists in order to add new terms and further "See"
and "See also" references.
- For the sake of improved access to information, standard control lists
should be adopted by the Subcommittees for use by member States, as
far as possible. The most essential ones are:
- Country and language codes;
- Corporate authors (which includes names of conferences and
other types of meetings);
- Personal authors;
- Subjects (top-level terms);
- Series, etc.
- should a particular centre use non-standard control lists, a
conversion programme should be written by the Subcommittee
to connect these data to the standard lists used by everyone.
- Should conversion programmes be used, standardized punctuation
should be used to ensure the smooth conversion of data.
- The "Substitute function" is very important to refer the user from the
non preferred to the preferred term. "See" and "See also" references
should be used. A general, top-level list is mandatory. However,
free-language terms could be input into a separate field to supplement
the field(s) for controlled subject terms.
OTHER ISSUES
15. Several issues were raised by experts during Subcommittee meetings:
- The Head of the delegation of the Organization of African Unity (OAU)
indicated to the experts that, in the framework of the establishement of the
African Economic Community, their organization was willing to sponsor
delegates from the various African economic groupings to take part in future
work of the Standing Committee starting from. Hence, they have requested
PADIS to inform OAU about any subcommittee meeting which should be
attended by the economic groupings and even by member States.
- Experts were also informed by the secretariat about the meeting of the Joint
Conference of African Planners, Statisticians, Population and Information
Specialists to be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 11-15 March 1996, and
also about the Subcommittee meetings on on-line access, computer networking
and CD ROM to be held the week before the meeting of the Joint Conference
mentionned above. Members of the Subcommittee requested PADIS to send
them invitation letters by 15 December to enable them make necessary
arrangements to attend the various Subcommittee meetings and the Joint
Conference.
- Training in relation to use of the PADIS new methodologies was urged.
Standing Committee members were eager to see the various programs and
standards developed during the Cairo meeting be implemented in member
States and African subregional and regional organizations. Also training was
requested in indexing and preparation of summaries for documentalists and
personnel required to develop bibliographic and textual data bases.
- Subcommittee members also urged PADIS to finalize data collection for the
African Development CD ROM and to finalize its publication by 1996. Even
if all member States were urged by the Subcommittees to contribute data in the
African CD ROM, the experts felt that PADIS should proceed with data
already collected and prepare the CD ROM without unecessary delay.
- ALDOC has offered to translate into arabic language the Authority file
program's utilities and documentation.
- During the Subcommittee meetings, 10 institutions have requested from PADIS
the IDAMS software for processing of statistical data given by UNESCO to
ECA for distribution to African member States and African regional
institutions. The software could be obtained by any institution in Africa after
signature of an agreement between PADIS and the institution.
Annex 1
LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
- Mr. Maliki Abdoulaye
Director of CIDES
Ministry of Planning and Finance
Niamey, Niger
BP 862
Tel: 735740
Telex: 5463NI
Fax: 735983
- Mr. Edward Chonelwa, Documentalist
African Regional Organization for Standardization (ARSO)
P.O.Box 57363
Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: 224561/330882
Telex: 22097
Fax: 218792
E-mail: sysop@arso.gn.apc.org
- Mr. Nageri Michael, OIC and Consultant
African Regional Center for Technology (ARCT)
17th Floor, Foundation FAHD, Ave. Djiby Mbaye
BP 2435
Dakar, Senegal
Tel: (221) 237712
Fax: (221) 237713
Telex: 61282 SG
E-mail: arct@endadak.gn.apc.org
- Mr. Duke Lawrence Ogbokor, Programmer Analyst/Head Computer Unit
Lake Chad Basin Commission
BP 727, Ndjamena, Chad
Tel: (235) 514145
Fax: (235) 514137
Telex: CBLT 5251 KD
E-mail: duke@globenet.gn.apc.org
- Mr. Andre Roos, Assistant Director, Meta-information
Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology
Private Bag X894
0001 Pretoria, South Africa
Tel: +27 12 314-6356
Fax: +27 12-323-2720/ +27 12-314-6072
E-mail andre.roos@acts2.pwv.gov.za
- Diagne Mohammed Fadhel, Director
National Center of Scientific and Technical Documentation (CNDST)
Dakar, Senegal
B.P. 218 RP
Tel: (221) 215163
E-mail: diagnef@mmet.mmet.sn
- Ms. Joyce Phiri, Documentalist
ESADIS
Lusaka, Zambia
Tel: 01 228502-5
Telex: 26
Fax: 260-1-236949
E-mail: esadis@unzanet.gn.apc.org
- Ms. Maha El Masry, Data base Expert
ALDOC League of Arab States, Cairo, Egypt
Tel: 5750511
E-mail: jjaffar@ritsec.com.eg
- Dr. Hassan Widatalla Elhassan, Chief of
Planning, Research and Statistics
Organization of African Unity
P.O. Box 3243
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Tel: 51 27 03
Fax: (251-1) 512622
Telex: 21046
E-mail: pdsoau@padis.gn.apc.org
- Mrs. Tarana Loumabeka,
Economist-Statistician
Organization of African Unity
P.O.Box 3243
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Tel: 51 77 00 Ext. 340
Fax: (251-1) 512622
E-mail: pdsoau@padis.gn.apc.org
- Mrs. Woubalem Taye,
Research Assistant,
Population and Development Section (PDS)
Organization of African Unity
P.O.Box 3243
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Tel: 51 77 00 Ext. 191
E-mail: pdsoau@padis.gn.apc.org
- Mr. Eric Ndegwa, Librarian
International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE)
P.O. Box 30772 Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: 802501
Telex: 803360
E-mail: icipe@cgnet.com
- Mrs. Jehan Nour, Computer Manager
Egyptian National Scientific and Technical Information Network (ENSTINET)
P.O.Box 1522, Attaba, Cairo
Tel: 3557253/3564421
Fax: 3547807
E-mail: jhn@sti.sci.eg
- Mrs. Nadia B. Elshishiny, Manager
User Service Department, ENSTINET
P.O.Box 1522 Attaba 11511
Cairo, Egypt
Tel: (202) 3557253
Fax: (202) 3547807
E-mail: ns@sti.sci.eg
- Mr. Ahmad M. Abdel Bassit, Director
Egyptian National Science and Technical Information Network
P.O. Box 1522 Cairo, Egypt
Tel: 202-3557253
Fax: 202-3547807
E-mail: ab@enstinet.eg.net or ab@sti.sci.eg
- Mrs. Sharon Okinda, Information Services Manager
African Economic Research Consortium
P.O.Box 62882, Nairobi, Kenya
Tel: 254-2-228057
Fax: 254-2-219308
E-mail: aerc@elci.gn.apc.org
- Ms. Mona A. El-Menghani, Documentalist
ALDOC, League of Arab States
Cairo, Egypt
Tel: 5750511
| SECRETARIAT
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(Economic Commission for Africa)
P. O. Box 3005, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Tel: +251-1-511167
Fax: +251-1-514416
E-mail: makane.faye@padis.gn.apc.org
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| 1. | Mr. Makane Faye, Regional Adviser in Information Systems
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| 2. | Mr. Lambert Hogenhout, Associate Computer Expert
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| 3. | Ms. Hirut Asrat, Secretary
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Annex 2
PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME OF WORK
Monday, 13 November 1995
| 0900 - 1000 | Registration
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| 1000 - 1030 | Opening of the meeting
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| 1100 - 1115 | Election of Officers of the various Subcommittees
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| 1115 - 1130 | Adoption of the Agenda
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| 1130 - 1200 | Standardization activities in PADIS with special emphasis on the
Carnegie project
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COFFEE BREAK
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| 1200 - 1400 | Administrative matters
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Tuesday, 14 November 1995
| 0800 - 1130 | Meeting of Subcommittee 1 on PADIS methodologies for document
analysis: review of the PADIS/CDS-ISIS manual and the PADOR
software program
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COFFEE BREAK
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| 1145 - 1300 | Hands-on-training on use of PADDEV/PADOR data base management
program
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| 1300 - 1500 | Meeting of Subcommittee 3 on Evaluation of textual data base formats
and structures: discussion of the report on data base formats and
structures
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Wednesday, 15 November 1995
| 0800 - 1130 | Meeting of Subcommittee 6 on Authority files:
- review of the ECA/PADIS Authority program (ODIN)
for authority file creation and maintenance; and
- discussion of modalities for Authority file maintenance
and dissemination in the ECA/PADIS network
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COFFEE BREAK
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| 1145 - 1500 | Review of the Authority file program
Hands-on-training in the use of PADDEV/PADOR
data base program and the ODIN Authority fil
progra
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Thursday, 16 November 1995
| 0900 - 1030 | Preparation of Subcommittee reports
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COFFEE BREAK
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| 1045 - 1230 | Visit of the Cabinet Information and Decision Making
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| 1245 - 1445 | Visit of ENSTINET
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| 1500 - 1630 | Adoption of the report of the various subcommittees
- Closing of the meeting
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Annex 3
List of documentation for the Subcommittee meetings
- Programme of work, ECA/PADIS/SCH/SC.1.3.5/PROG/95
- Standardization activities at ECA/PADIS with special reference to the Carnegie
project, ECA/PADIS/SCH/ST/1/95
- Manual for document analysis - CDS/ISIS version, ECA/PADIS/SCH/SC.1/95
- Report on data base formats and structures, ECA/PADIS/SCH/SC.3/95
- Program for authority file creation and maintenance : ODIN,
ECA/PADIS/SCH/SC.6/95